DnB NOR and Telenor begin NFC field trial in Oslo

The Norwegian bank and the telecoms operator, which formed a joint venture last year to create an NFC trusted service manager for the Nordic markets, have begun a small scale NFC test that will be extended into Oslo city centre later this year.

FIRST TEST: DnB NOR and mobile operator Telenor have started a small-scale NFC test in Oslo

DnB NOR and Telenor have begun their first NFC test with a small pilot at Oslo’s Telenor Expo Fornebu trade centre café, and have announced plans to extend the trial to Oslo city centre later this year.

The test is the first of its kind in the Nordic region, says DnB NOR, and is being run in cooperation with MasterCard, Giesecke & Devrient, BBS, EDB and Teller. Participants are being equipped with an NFC enabled mobile phone, together with an NFC SIM card from Giesecke & Devrient that stores the payment application.

In the fall of 2009 the trial will be extended to include “shops in strategic places in Oslo,” says DnB NOR. “We wish to learn more about what Norwegian banking and mobile phone customers think about this type of mobile phone payment solution,” says Bent Bentsen, project manager for DnB NOR’s new payment solutions.

DnB NOR and Telenor have been working together on NFC since April 2008 when they formed TSM Nordic, a joint venture charged with creating a trusted service manager to handle the introduction of NFC in the Nordic region.

In autumn 2008 Telenor also ran a small technical trial that saw a Mifare DESfire ticketing application loaded onto an NFC phone. The trial, which took place in the Norwegian city of Tromsø, involved thirty people and was run in conjunction with Cominor, a local bus company.